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Re-engaging Youth has Positive Impact

4/2/2012

Social Impact Research, the research division of Root Cause, releases an issue brief outlining the potential positive impact of re-engaing out of school and work youth in education, training and the workforce. According to research, effective investments in "disengaged youth" could reverse staggering individual and societal costs:

           $ 306,906         Lifetime cost of one high school dropout to the government
           $ 65.8 billion     Potential earnings loss of disengaged youth

Preparing disengaged youth for and connecting them to meaningful work experience can, according to the brief:
1. Encourage youth to re-engage with school
2. Develop academic persistence and career aspirations
3. Enable youth to gain valuable transferable job skills
4. Reduce risky and deviant behaviors such as criminal activity, drug use, pregnancy, and violence
5. Reduce isolation for youth
6. Increase their self-awareness, resilience, hopefulness, and ability to cope with traumatic experience

For more information on the costs of disengaged youth, the barriers experienced by at-risk youth, and the qualities of effective programs...

            Social Issue Report: Youth Career Development

Guide for Transitioning At-Risk Youth to Employment

1/31/2012

Career and employment success for at-risk young people is rooted in ongoing connections with parents, caregivers, friends, mentors, advocates, communities, schools, and employers. Specific tools and strategies can help in this process. Expanding on the It’s My Life transition framework, this concise handbook from the Casey Family Programs is intended for child welfare professionals and others responsible for helping young people prepare for transition to adulthood and the workplace. This guide provides the following recommendations to help prepare young people for employment:

Start early to develop employability
Cultivate interests and skills, and relate them to future employment
Promote activities that help young people explore careers
Build job-readiness skills
Help young people get and keep jobs
Promote work-related education and training after high school

It’s My Life: Employment focuses on the needs of youth in foster care, but this guide (published in 2004) outlines specific recommendations for assisting youth with multiple and complex barriers to transition to college and career.

High Cost of "Opportunity Youth"

1/18/2012

A report commissioned by the White House Council for Community Solutions outlines the economic impact of the approximately 6.7 million 16-24 year olds considered "opportunity youth", those not in school and underemployed.

"These youth are disproportionately male and from minority groups, but substantial rates are found for all youth groups. Opportunity youth may have dropped out of high school or college and been unable to find work; may have been involved in the criminal justice system; may have mental or health conditions that have inhibited their activities; or may have care-giving responsibilities in their families. Some opportunity youth are ‘chronic’: they have never been in school or work after the age of 16. Others are ‘under-attached’: despite some schooling and some work experience beyond 16, these youth have not progressed through college or secured a stable attachment to the labor market. We estimate a chronic opportunity youth population of 3.4 million and an under-attached opportunity youth population of 3.3 million. Both groups are failing to build an economic foundation for adult independence."

The report details the economic burden of opportunity youth including lost earnings, lost tax payments, crime, health costs, welfare support payments, and other losses in productivity and economic growth. In 2011 dollars, the report estimates that:

Each opportunity youth imposes a social burden of $51,350 per year they are disconnected and after each opportunity youth reaches 25, he or she will subsequently impose a future lifetime burden of $699,770.

These estimates support the compelling economic and social argument for workforce and educational supports for struggling young people. For more information on the cost calculations and the barriers that put these youth at risk, see The Economic Value of Opportunity Youth

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Re-engaging Youth has Positive Impact

Guide for Transitioning At-Risk Youth to Employment

High Cost of "Opportunity Youth"

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